


Black Fire

by FireflyFoxtrot



Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Angst, Angst and Porn, F/M, Guilt, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Porn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:27:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24674605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflyFoxtrot/pseuds/FireflyFoxtrot
Summary: Scenes about and between Daine and Numair. Some fit into canon, some don't. Some go with each other, some don't. Facets on a crystal. Snippets of different timelines. Fragments of a powerful love between powerful people.
Relationships: Numair Salmalín/Veralidaine Sarrasri
Kudos: 22





	1. There's No One Better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Varice and Numair hook up. For old times' sake.

“Varice, still comely as a peach.”

“Arram, still as charming as any player.”

They embraced.

“Does our old wager still stand?” Varice asked, voice low and coy. “If I can’t lasso anyone better by midnight, you’ll fuck me to sleep?”

Numair laughed. Varice was still direct. And he remembered their liaisons fondly; it seemed that they had attended a hundred state dinners with Ozorne in their youth, bored by the young politician’s seemingly endless obligations to entertain foreign dignitaries and neglect the two guests he had brought along for the confidence he didn’t need after a few cups of wine.

“Surely you can wrangle a better partner than me.”

“There’s no one better.” Varice winked. “But I’ll try.”

And as soon as she had appeared she was gone. He spent the evening drinking and trying not to stare at Daine in her gown, Daine dancing with Kaddar, Daine…

Suddenly it was midnight and he was very drunk, feeling arms snaking round his waist from behind. He turned to find Varice hanging on him, smelling of wine and perfume.

“No one better, hmm?” he asked wryly.

“There was a duke that seemed likely but he snagged an eligible maiden and disappeared.”

“Duke Medha? He is a catch.”

“Well, I’ve caught you.”

“I can see that.”

She straightened and put her hand out. When he took it she led him to her room.

After closing the door behind them she began to kiss him sloppily; he could taste the wine on her tongue. He kissed her back, sinking into the familiar feeling of Varice in his arms.

But thoughts of Daine seeped into his mind like a fog—how she would feel in his arms, how soft her lips would be. He tried to refocus on Varice, her golden hair and sumptuous breasts, but he kept coming back to his magelet.

“You’re distracted,” Varice whispered.

“Then hold my interest.” He roughly pushed her down to her knees and undid his breeches. She took him in her mouth. Feeling strangely detached, he watched her work at him for a few moments, then closed his eyes.

Images of Daine rushed in. What would she look like kneeling before him, his cock in her mouth, her eyes looking up at him…

He forced himself to open his eyes. Varice was an expert; she was trying her best. It wasn’t enough.

“On the bed,” he said gruffly.

She complied, on hands and knees, wiggling her backside appealingly. He pushed up her skirt and swiftly entered her and she moaned.

He still couldn’t keep the thoughts at bay. Daine in front of him, on her hands and knees, her hair wild. Daine’s narrow waist, Daine’s round ass, Daine’s cunt…

Varice moaned as he grabbed her hair. The sound put him over the edge. What it would be like to hear Daine moan…

He rolled off her and fell to his back, staring at the ceiling. Varice chuckled.

“Gods, Arram, you’re about a mile long. I’d forgotten. It’s like getting fucked by a tree.”

But Numair was miles away.

“What is it?” Varice asked. “You’re different.”

“It’s been a long time.”

“I can’t put my finger on it. You’re distracted, for one thing. Thinking of someone else?”

Numair exhaled. “It’s possible.”

“But you’re darker somehow, too.”

“It’s possible.”

“Tell me.”

Numair turned to face Varice. It was against his better judgment to tell her, but his better judgment had been losing all night.

“I’m… distracted. By… my…” he trailed off, unable to choke Daine’s name out. Gods, he was a wreck.

“Your student?”

He groaned.

“Is it that obvious?”

“She is lovely,” Varice said, pulling blankets up around her. “And you obviously care for her.”

“She’s my ward.”

Varice laughed, then stifled it as she saw Numair’s face fall.

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Truly,” Numair said. “Sometimes I think I just want to kiss her once and then I want to magic her to forget it and then I want the Graveyard Hag to take me. I’m done with this torment.”

"Good luck."


	2. I Was an Otter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daine notices Numair noticing her.

Daine emerged from the river a new woman. The morning was bright and the danger was behind them. She saw Numair approaching and waved.

“I was an otter!” she exclaimed.

He began to smile as he stepped down the bank, and then he frowned. No, maybe it wasn’t a frown, exactly—his brow furrowed and his chest expanded with a deep inhalation. His dark eyes flicked down to her breasts. She looked down and saw that her nipples were visible under her soaked underthings.

“Oh,” she faltered. She suddenly noticed how her breath hitched and moved her chest. She wrapped her arms around herself and looked back up at Numair, who was making intense eye contact.

“I wasn’t sure where you’d gone,” he said.

“Just down to get clean,” she said. “Have to be presentable when we get back to court.”

“Of course,” he said quietly. Something hung in the air between them. He was staring into her eyes, trying not to look down. She was uncomfortably aware of her own body, but a hot kind of buzzing pulsed through her that was not unpleasurable.

“I’m glad you’re all right.” He broke the connection by nodding, turning away, and striding back toward their camp. She began to shiver.


	3. The Screaming of Horses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Numair is attacked; his family and friends respond to a new threat against Tortall.

Numair lifted his daughter up above him and she squealed, sunlight streaming through her hair.

A searing pain struck like lightning behind Numair’s right eye. He reeled, staggered, set Sarra down rougher than he had meant to.

“Papa?”

The pain spread quickly, raging like fire down his jaw, back to his ear, up and across his forehead. He dropped to his knees and closed his eyes.

“Papa?” Sarra’s voice was high and scared.

“Get your Mama.” His own voice sounded ragged. He held his head in his hands, pushing against the pain.

Then a new sensation—something like ice cold fingers, poking, prodding, _rifling_ through his mind as through papers on a desk. His stomach churned. He tried to call upon the black fire of his gift to put up a barrier but could not focus; this new sensation was overwhelming. He put a hand down to the ground to steady himself. His vision swam then blinked out.

“Numair? What’s happening?”

He turned blindly toward Daine’s voice. He heard her drop to the ground beside him, felt her hand on his back, felt her reach out with her comforting, crackling copper magic. It calmed the muscles of his neck and shoulders, then recoiled wildly at whatever was ravaging his mind. Daine yelped and he felt the absence of her hand like a wound.

“I’m… An attack. Need Alanna. Baird.”

“Yes.” He felt her stand. “Sarra, come here.”

The icy fingers between his temples began to pinch. He felt them pull at the corner of a memory, tearing it from his mind. As they took it, he saw it flicker across his eyelids—Sarra, no more than two, giggling and toddling around the stables. She reached out to touch a mare’s fuzzy nose. He heard the screaming of horses as the memory was ripped from his mind.

The splitting headache subsided; instead his head throbbed with waves of dull pain.

He was panting on all fours when Alanna, Baird, Daine, and Sarra returned.

“What happened?” Alanna asked. Baird knelt beside Numair and set a steady hand on his shoulder. Numair could feel Baird searching his body for illness or injury. When the healer’s emerald fire reached Numair’s head, it felt fizzy.

“Don’t know. Felt like some sort of attack. They reached into my mind.”

“Reached into your mind? How?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never encountered anything like this before.” Alanna, Baird, and Diane all looked terrified. He could tell Sarra was confused; she watched him with big eyes from her perch on Daine’s hip. He leaned back to sit on his knees and swayed. Baird steadied him again. “I need to talk to Jon.”

Alanna strode out to the hallway. He heard her speak with her squire.

“The Black Mage requires an immediate audience with His Majesty. He is unable to travel. His Majesty will have to come here.”

Baird and Alanna moved Numair into the bed. Daine kissed his forehead and Sarra did the same. Jon came.

“What happened?”

“I’ve been attacked. A powerful mage pried into my mind. They took a memory.”

“What?”

“Sarra,” he whispered.

Jon was obviously confused.

“Is she a target?”

Numair shook his head.

“I think it was a demonstration. Of what they could do.” Numair sighed. “They’re telling me they can take whatever they want.”

“Why? Why not take whatever they want? This first time, when you’re the most vulnerable to this new form of attack?”

Numair shook his head.

“I don’t know.”


End file.
